


Journeys End In Lovers Meeting

by Chronicler



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Airports, Anger, Angst, Attempt at Humor, British Character, British English, British Slang, Canon Compliant, Caring, Character(s) of Color, Closeted Character, Declarations Of Love, Desperation, Dysfunctional Relationships, Explicit Language, Forbidden Love, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Future Fic, Hope, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Inspired by a Movie, Kissing in the Rain, Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Movie Quotation(s), Name-Calling, Near Future, One True Pairing, Pet Names, Photo banner, Pining, Queer Character, Queer Themes, Requited Love, Resolution, Romance, Secret Relationship, Shakespeare Quotations, Storms, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-21
Updated: 2014-10-21
Packaged: 2018-02-21 09:11:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2462726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chronicler/pseuds/Chronicler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One Direction are ending. After waiting years for Liam to choose him and stop hiding, Zayn is finally ready to give up. He's at an airport, in the rain, about to board a private jet. Liam panics when he realises that Zayn is really going to leave him this time. Can he convince him not to? </p><p>Vaguely inspired by Casablanca.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Journeys End In Lovers Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you Catrina and Mayra for beta reading. 
> 
> I needed to write this after my last story. I was channelling Casablanca, though I ship Rick/Louis, so for me it has a happy ending. Theme tune As Time Goes By sung by Dooley Wilson (Sam).
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pfr9uXA580&list=RDDo2olZ49M54&index=4
> 
> The final scene from Casablanca if you want to see it. ~
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kiNJcDG4E0
> 
> Title from Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare.
> 
> I just added some more, I really should stop. I feel bad that everyone's reading a slightly different story. On the plus side, it makes it worth re-reading.
> 
> Feedback would be very gratefully received.

“Zayn! _Zayn!_ ”

The sound of his name being called cut through the darkness and the driving rain. The heavens had opened as though the whole world were in mourning. Sheets of water pounded against Zayn and the concrete apron he was walking over at London City Airport. He almost didn’t look back, almost just kept moving towards the private jet that was waiting to take him up North. But why bother to pretend he could ever walk away?

When he turned around, Liam was running towards him. Of course: who else could it be? No one else would be out in the pouring rain racing to rip his heart out yet again. The quickly forming puddles of water splashed out messily from the impact of his expensive leather shoes as he approached. The coat of his designer suit flapping out as his silk tie blew back over his shoulder and the rain ruined the finely woven fabric. It was apt that he was wearing ripped jeans and an old t-shirt himself. He was leaving that life of appearances and expectations behind while Liam clung on to it.

Zayn’s bodyguard backed away discreetly as Liam bounded up and grasped Zayn’s arms tightly just below his shoulders. It was as though Liam were afraid he might finally get away. After years of rarely going unobserved, Zayn barely noticed as Liam's own security guard joined his and they pulled up their collars against the rain, looking away from the confrontation unfolding in front of them.

Zayn raised his arm between himself and Liam, rubbing his own wet lip with the edge of his index finger in a self-comforting gesture and letting his agitation show. His hair was flattening and sticking to his forehead under the onslaught of rain. His leather jacket was slick and shiny from the water and even blacker than the night. He just wanted to get out of there, get home to Bradford as quickly as possible, go to bed, and never get up again.

“What the fuck do you want?” he asked before Liam had the chance to say anything and confuse him even further. The breath accompanying his angry words was a quickly vanishing puff of visible warmth in the frigid air. They both jumped, glancing up quickly as a bolt of lightning shattered the sky and briefly illuminated their surroundings, the air crackling to life. Great, he was probably going to be stuck in the airport waiting for the sky to clear. He needed to leave quickly – escape whatever fucking game it was that Liam was playing this time.

Liam’s words were lost in the rain and the peal of thunder as Zayn blinked water out of his eyes. “What’d you say?” he asked, not really wanting to know.

“I said ‘I couldn’t leave it like that!’.” Liam raised his voice to be heard over the patter of the raindrops landing against them. Each one exploded into tiny droplets that caught the light from the small terminal, the plane, and the runway; they glittered before they were absorbed back into the torrent. He looked desperate and Zayn was glad; he fucking deserved to be. They’d performed their last ever concert as a band earlier that evening at the O2. The arena was still visible in the near distance. Afterwards they’d all hugged, cried, and promised they wouldn’t drift apart. Though he didn’t think any of them really believed it.

Then Liam had left. Just _left_ with his family, friends, and paid for “girlfriend”. As though Zayn were just a colleague he could walk away from. As though they hadn’t shared so much more than that. Zayn hadn’t wanted to attend the aftershow party, hadn’t wanted to play nice and drag things out; that chapter of his life was over and he wasn’t sure he’d miss it. So he was finally going back to his _real_ home, to his family and friends, the life he’d left too young, and he didn’t intend to ever come back. Liam knew that and he hadn’t even tried to get him to stay. It wasn’t about the distance, which wasn't much anyway; it was about Zayn giving up and letting go.

He couldn’t stand the thought of Liam turning up at his house near London yet again for a drunken shag after he partied all night with his sleazy friends once the industry people and his family left. So Zayn had changed his plans about leaving the next day. Instead he had sulked discreetly in the terminal lounge while he waited for a last minute chartered jet to get him the fuck away. The cycle he’d let himself fall into with Liam was self-destructive and he knew it. He was almost thirty for fuck’s sake: he was too old to be anyone's dirty little secret. Even Liam’s.

Zayn tried to add a sense of finality to his tone as he said, “You didn’t make me any promises.” Not with words anyway, he almost added, but managed not to. Zayn hoped he seemed more angry than pathetic, though he must look like a drowned rat, and his eyeliner was probably running to complete his dejected look. The rain was at least masking his frustrated tears as they bled into the water hitting his face. He tried to pull away but Liam just held tighter. His fingers dug into Zayn’s meagre flesh even through the layers of his clothes. Zayn felt it down to his bones. He’d always loved how slight he felt in Liam’s arms, how overpowered. But not now. Now he just felt lost, alone, and captured.

“Come on, darling, let’s go back inside? You’re soaking…” Liam gestured back towards the building behind him with his head, turning it slightly but not looking away from Zayn. He tried to pull Zayn back with him. Liam’s grey suit had now darkened to black and flattened against him. His shirt was stuck to him and almost transparent. The hazy light highlighted his well-developed muscles: it really wasn’t fair. But Zayn had to stand his ground.

He resisted, twisting out of Liam's grip and managing to finally pull free. “Don’t pretend you care! I always thought you were brave, but you’re just a selfish _motherfucker!_ I was just an easy lay and now you’re gonna get on with your _fucking_ life without me! Be a big solo star, or producer, or whatever the fuck you want to be, and you don’t want me hanging ‘round and dragging you down! Years I’ve been waiting for this! Years!” He knew he was screaming, knew he was losing it, was wilder than the brewing storm, but he couldn’t reign it back in. It had been a long time coming. His hands gesticulated animatedly as he yelled. If there had been a hard surface nearby, a wall or a mirror, he’d have punched it. But he could never hurt Liam, only himself. More lightning broke the sky as if in sympathy, the crash of thunder coming ominously soon after it.

But he wasn’t going to let Liam get him alone again so that he could fuck him then leave like he always did. “I thought that now – I thought… Whatevs…” Zayn’s tense body went slack as his words trailed away. What was the point? He turned back towards the plane, but Liam rushed around in front of him to block his path. Liam stumbled a little as he moved, briefly gripping onto Zayn's sleeve to right himself. Zayn knew him so well, knew everything about him, could read him like a book. And he could tell that Liam had already been drinking, as always; that was another problem they hadn't dealt with. Though, right now, it was just making Liam brave and reckless, if a little unsteady.

He looked past Liam, past the grass verges and the runway, past the artificially neat river surrounding it and up at the scattering of stars. They were colder than the rain in their icy indifference. The waning moon was still almost full as it emerged from behind drifting clouds, stark and illuminating their tiny, insignificant drama almost as if it cared.

He couldn’t go back inside with Liam, couldn’t keep doing the same thing over and over like a stuck record, its grooves being scratched worse each time until no music was left, just an angry screech. And he couldn’t make himself leave. So he was stuck. Standing still as the elements battered against him. Like always. An icy wind blew over the water, the raindrops loud as they slammed against and merged into it. A fog was starting to descend. It was as though nature itself were fucking him over too now.

He heard Liam take a deep, shaky breath, and looked back at him; Liam’s eyes were wide in shock and he swallowed, pushing his dripping hair back from his forehead and trying to wipe away the water. It flew away in droplets amid the torrent and made no difference, the water just kept coming. He finally seemed to find his words: “I’m sorry. I didn’t…To be fair, I thought we’d have a chance to talk before you left. But I should have done this sooner, I know I should have. I panicked when I came back for you and Louis said you were leaving for good. I never thought you’d really do it…” He moved close to Zayn again, only the rain separating them, even as it joined them together. “But I’m here now. And you can’t leave me. You can’t. I don’t give a _fuck_ about anything else. I just want you. I _promise_ it’ll be different now. I love you Zayn Javadd Malik, and I always will.”

Zayn stood as still as a statue. Liam had said that to him before as a friend, and as a bandmate, but never like he was making a pledge; he’d never had the guts.

Liam seized the moment of calm. Placing his hands on Zayn’s shoulders he looked into his eyes as best he could through the water and said, “Let’s, I dunno, run away together and get married? _Anything_. I don’t give a fuck what anyone else says anymore.”

“ _Please_ ,” Zayn hated how small he sounded, “don’t play me, Liam." He dragged out each syllable of Liam's name the way he always had, wrapping his tongue around it. Though this time it was a plea. "Don’t say it if you don’t mean it. I can’t… Just don’t… ” He shook his head as he said it.

Liam grinned, the fucker, like it was his birthday and Christmas all rolled into one and he’d just found out he’d finally won a Grammy. “Is that a yes?”

This is insane, Zayn told himself. He’ll bottle it and let you down. But Liam’s brown eyes were almost black in the gloom, the skin wrinkling by his eyes as he grinned until they almost disappeared. Zayn never could resist Liam when he looked like this. Ever since the moment they met all those years ago: for the first few minutes his world had been the same as always, then Liam had smiled at him in giddy excitement – over something long since forgotten – and boom, his life had changed forever.

Zayn found himself laughing as his own inner storm started to clear; it felt strange, his throat still sore from yelling. “Don’t fucking pretend you don’t already know! You always knew – I know you did.” Years of pining, then years of hooking-up, and in the end it had all come down to this moment. They both knew this was it – make or break.

“You always were gagging for it.” Liam’s voice was teasing, seductive.

“Shut the fuck up,” but Zayn looked down and smiled as he said it, almost coy as his whole being relaxed after years of barely holding himself together. His hands snaked between Liam’s jacket over his abdomen and grasped his wet shirt; it tried to cling onto Liam’s body as he bunched it in his fists. Zayn's eyelashes were dripping with rainwater, but if he also cried a little out of relief, well, no one would ever know.

Liam’s big hand clumsily grasped Zayn’s chin – the water making it slippery despite his stubble – and raised his face, leaning down to try and kiss him; but Zayn pulled away to glance around, Liam's lips brushing against his cheek. It wasn’t in Zayn's nature to hide or be ashamed, but he’d been doing it for so long that it was going to be a hard habit to break. People could see them: their bodyguards, airport staff moving quickly as they got drenched tending to the plane, and anyone who was watching from the terminal windows. And even though it was dark and no one knew they’d be at this tiny airport, he always, always suspected there were bored paparazzi and their remaining, devastated fans lurking about, watching for a scandal to pounce on and a story to tell.

“It doesn’t matter anymore.” Liam told him with certainty in his voice. He pulled Zayn close, cupping his face in his cold, dripping hands as he kissed him. They’d done this many times before, but it felt different now. The kiss was deep and seemed full of tempting promises; their lips were wet from the rain, but Zayn didn't care. As Liam pulled back a little he nipped at Zayn’s bottom lip with his teeth and it went straight to Zayn’s dick. He shuddered as he pushed against the hard body in front of him and captured Liam’s sinfully full lips again, moaning into his mouth. The flash of more lightening hit his closed eyes, accompanied by the crack of thunder, but he barely noticed.

Breaking away, Liam murmured, “Babe,” as he leaned his forehead down against Zayn’s and cradling the back of his head, then he pulled back enough to say, “we gotta get inside now, okay? Then we’ll work out what to do next, and where to go. It’s not safe to fly in this weather, I’m not letting you go anywhere, and they’re gonna cancel the flight anyway. And we’re gonna catch new– new–” His brow creased as he struggled to find the right word.

“Pneumonia, baby,” Zayn gently finished for him.

"See, I need you to put me right and keep me in line,” Liam tried to joke with a smile, though Zayn knew how true that really was.

Knuckles white from gripping tightly onto Liam’s shirt, and from the growing chill in his bones, Zayn shivered – though in truth, his body only shook partly because of the cold. He knew they should move, but he had to be sure. Biting his lip, he looked up at Liam. “So like, this is it, right? You and me, yeah? You know I love you, even if you're a twat sometimes. I’ll love you forever.” His voice caught as he repeated the words he’d said a long time ago and hated himself for at the time – for making a fool of himself over someone he never thought he’d be able to keep.

“Yeah, beautiful – just you and me.” Liam looked calmer and less stressed than he had in years, even standing in the centre of a storm.

Zayn felt as though he were being choked by the emotions overwhelming him, but as the last of the tension between them finally broke he managed a lopsided smile and quoted a line from Casablanca, "Louis, I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship." He couldn't resist, given how reminiscent the final scene was of their current circumstances, even looking starkly black and white in the dim light.

Liam gave him a blank, questioning look with a raise of his eyebrows as he said, "It's the start of a lot more than that, babe. And what does Louis have to do with it?" his tone confused.

"Never mind," Zayn said with a shake of his head and a brief affectionate laugh. He finally managed to smile at least. Flattening his hands against Liam's chest he quickly kissed his chilled lips.

When Zayn pulled away, Liam grabbed his cold hands from where they were sticking to the wet cotton, raised them up against his open mouth, and blew on them. His eyes were locked with Zayn's, and the intent look in them suggested he would do a lot more than that to Zayn once they were alone. His breath was a brief, glorious moment of warmth. Lowering Zayn's hands, he rubbed them between his own. It didn't do much in the rain, and Liam's touch was as cold as his, but it made Zayn feel cared for, which was all he'd wanted.

"Ready now, sweetheart?" Liam asked, his fingers still rubbing at Zayn's numb skin, the feeling finally starting to flood back from the friction.

"Yeah," Zayn replied with a single, firm nod, finally imbuing his voice with the finality he'd been seeking as he added, "I'm ready, jaan." He was ready for whatever they would do next, now that he believed it would be together, and not hidden.

Returning his smile with a look of jubilant relief, Liam let go of one of Zayn's hands and pulled him close to his side with the other. Their obviously fed-up bodyguards trailed after them as they ran back to the light and dwindling bustle of the terminal. But they still managed to leave the whole world far behind them.

**_ The end _ **

**Author's Note:**

> "Jaan" means "life" in Urdu and is used as an endearment.


End file.
